Ellis & Cai proper welsh names or chavy?

[firefirejugdypantsonfire]

I need a welsh boys name for DS3. My DH is welsh but never suggests anything. I'm English.

I want something shortish and that can be easily read by non welshies.

Are Cai & Ellis options or not really Welsh names ?

I quite like Euan / Ewan but is the welsh version Iuan ? As sure that would be said differently in welsh and in England ( where we live I guess it would end up as Ian)

In the family there is already Bryn, Gareth, Huw, Dylan, Rhys, Ianto

I love Iolo although it would probably be confused with Y-O-L-O and Illtyd but that isn't the easiest for English speakers. I wouldn't have thought of Cai as a Welsh name but it is from Arthurian legends.

I love Caradog, Cadwallader (my grandfather's name) and Guto.

I know a toddler Emlyn, very cute little boy he is too.

Cynlais

Bleddyn is a great name! I know a few, oldest is in his late 70’s, youngest a toddler.

There’s a boy my daughter swims with called Emlyn. He’s 7.

I’m seeing lots of “old” English names come back too, like Elsie and Arthur and Oscar and Aubrey.

I love the name Osian

how about Ceirion? I really like it but we have a C surname and I just don’t like the sound of C names with our surname.
Elis is our list. I really like it but DH not so keen.

How about Ifan? Or Gwion?

Bryan? Gethin?

Personally I love Rhys but looks like you can’t have that option ☹️

Bryn even! Stupid autocorrect

Rhidian/Rhydian, Rhys, Huw, Evan, Morgan?

I know a lovely little Iwan and a couple of Ioans.

Dafydd pronounced....Davith

Nooo please don't have a child, call them Dafydd and pronounce it with a "th" at the end

to be fair, an english 'th' describes both the voiced 'th' in thing, and the de-voiced 'th' in with. the de-voiced with, is what you need for Dafydd.

I LOVE the name Taran. I know a couple and I think its great.

The ei sound in welsh names is very tricky for non welsh people, it is the e as in net sounded, running into the i as in thin. So it ends up somewhere between neigh and nye, but you should hear both vowels. Ieuan is difficult for non welsh speakers too. Also Rhys. The h is sounded, it isn’t Rees. Iwan has no y sound at the beginning, it is i as in in, followed by wan as in van.
I think you need something that English people won’t mangle, so that does leave names like Elis. (Please don’t call a baby Dai. It is short for Dafydd so it would be like calling a baby Dave or Steve) .
So Elis, Gareth, Morgan e.g. names with English vowels and not starting with I as in English that often turns into a Y.

Thank you TheOriginalEmu I have to say it's a very appropriate name for DS2. He is quite a bright spark and very loud! I wonder if it was fate or if people juts live up to their names?

If i had another son i'd call him Taran. I do think sometimes names just work on people! Of my 3, my youngest has a very unusual (welsh) name in comparison to her siblings who's names are more common. She is the one of my 3 that is entirely fiesty enough to carry off the name and deal with the questions with a look that makes anyone who asks feel entirely stupid!

People who can't pronounce Dewi utterly baffle me, it has to be said. It's not Llyr or Gwenllian or Eifion which have difficult non-english sounds in them.
Deh-wee. simple. Once you've heard once, its not even remotely hard to say!

I know a Caian - of welsh descent if that helps?

Ellis is nice but is spelt Elis in Welsh. My favourite Welsh boys name is Osian (pronounced Osh ee an). I know a Harri, a Siencyn, Mabon, Gwion, Jac and Iori. I think they're all lovely names.

My dc are lewis rhys and Gethin Lloyd. Other suggestions:
Iolo
Ianto
Iestyn
Caradog
Llewelyn
Aled
Sion
Ioan
Gruffudd

amelia Osian isn't pronounced like that. it's Osh-an.

"People who can't pronounce Dewi utterly baffle me, it has to be said. "

I've come to the conclusion that they can't read it rather than can't pronounce it. As you say, it has no sounds that don't exist in English, but they can't reconcile the spelling with the sound I think. Shows how pointless it is for a Welsh speaker to try to find a name that English people can pronounce because you never know which perfectly simple name they won't be able to get.

My friend's husband is Dewi and I automatically read it as dew-ee. Then I remember that's wromg but I can't think what it is so my brain overcompensates and I go through devi, doughy, for some reason deh-wee doesn't seem to occur.

Gwen yes, i think you're right. I've found it interesting over the years actually, with my youngest she has a pretty unusual name that people might not automatically think of as welsh. People (non-welsh speakers, so ould be tend to pronounce it just fine....unless I've for someone reason mentioned it;swelshness first and then they seem to struggle more. I have a theory that people just assume it's going to be much harder than it is, just because 'welsh is hard'.